The British Museum - October 2018

The Royal Game of Ur: the famous race game played by the kings and queens of ancient Ur.

I was asked by the British Museum to design a product in record time for the 'I am Ashurbanipal' exhibition. It was to accompany the launch of a reproduction of the board game 'The Royal Game of Ur'.

The game is a race between two players on a board of twenty squares. For some three thousand years this was the most popular board game across the whole of the ancient Middle East, played by kings and commoners alike. The original set dates from about 2500 BC and is in the collection of the British Museum.

BAKKA is grateful to the British Museum for their kind permission to publish this photo. Please be aware that it cannot be downloaded or published.

It was a race of its own kind to fulfil this request, but finished samples of scarves in two designs, each in two colourways, were submitted within two weeks of receiving the photos of the board and all four scarves were retained for sale in their shop.

They are no longer exclusive to the British Museum and you can find them in our scarves collection.